FAQs

1. What does NPC do?
2. When was NPC set up and by whom?
3. How does NPC help funders?
4. How does NPC help charities?
5. How is NPC funded?
6. What areas does NPC research cover?
7. How can I get my charity on NPC’s radar screen?
8. How can I find out about working for NPC?
9. Should people give a certain amount to charity?
10. How can you judge charities by the same criteria as the financial sector?
11. What do you think about the state of giving in the UK?
12. Do you have any other questions for us?

1. What does NPC do?

NPC is a consultancy and think tank dedicated to helping funders and charities to do good better. NPC has three strategic aims:

• to build world-class research and tools to understand and increase the impact achieved by charities and their funders, and to share this as widely as possible;
• to provide first-rate advice and consulting services to help charities and funders maximise their impact; and
• to inspire and lead the debate about what makes effective charities and how this can be measured.
  

Read about our mission, achievements and history.

2. When was NPC set up and by whom?

NPC was set up as a registered charity in 2002. We were established by a group of donors from the City who realised that there was nowhere to go for independent philanthropy advice. Our founders created NPC to research the human welfare landscape and analyse charities. In this way they believed donors would be directed to the most effective charities and inspired to provide the support they need.

Harvey McGrath is a trustee of NPC and Chairman of Prudential plc. He says ‘I see my donations to charities as an investment in society. I helped set up New Philanthropy Capital because I knew there were other donors who thought like me. They too are passionate about generating a social return with their donations and want support to make this happen.’ Read more about our history.

3. How does NPC help funders?

NPC helps individual donors, businesses and foundations in two main ways:

• our tailored advice and consultancy helps them at every step of their ‘philanthropy journey’. We have a broad range of services for individual donors and their families, businesses, professional advisors and foundations. We can help with everything from selecting and supporting charities to reviewing your giving.
• our independent research is freely available on our website and provide the analysis funders need to decide where to focus their giving and how best to support charities.

4. How does NPC help charities?

Helping charities to achieve a greater impact on the lives of the people they help is at the heart of our mission. We help charities in a number of ways:

• Our tailored advice and consultancy helps charities assess, improve and communicate their effectiveness. Read more about our charity consulting services.
• Our independent research helps charities and their supporters better understand the gaps in provision and where and how they can make the greatest impact. Download our research reports for free.
• Our Charity Analysis Framework is available for all to use and help charities to create more impact and improve their fundraising. Read examples of our analysis.
  

More examples of how we help charities.

5. How is NPC funded?

We have three main funding streams:

• Funding for our start up and growth comes from a donations from number of private donors, including some of our trustees. If you would like to donate, please click below:
• Our reports are funded by grants from individuals, foundations and corporates. These include: Big Lottery Fund, Comic Relief and Deutsche Bank.
• Client fees cover the cost of bespoke advice. As we are a charity we do not make a profit from our fees.

6. What areas does NPC research cover?

NPC's research broadly spans three areas:

• sector research: explores social issues such as child abuse and homelessness, examining the need; what government is doing; and where charities contribute to providing services and solving problems.
• structural research: examines broad issues facing charities and funders such as poor governance or burdensome funder reporting requirements.
• research on measurement: looks at how charities can be supported to measure and communicate their results; produces tools to help charities achieve this; and encourages funders to think about their own impact and that of their grantees.

As well as an ongoing programme of research, we deliver bespoke research to inform strategic decision-making. Our research reports are available to download.

7. How can I get my charity on NPC's radar screen?

We find out about charities through a combination of desk research, referrals from experts and charities, and via Charity Commission and Guidestar entries. So, the best way to get on our radar screen is to ensure that your entries on the Charity Commission and Guidestar are up to date.

On the whole, we don’t analyse charities individually. Instead, the charities we recommend have been identified and analysed as part of our research process on a particular topic or sector (eg, autism or literacy) or through our charity consulting services.

Please do not send hard copies of brochures or annual reports as we do not have the capacity to store this information. However, you may register your organisation's details on our database - as long as you can provide some evidence of your organisation's results.

8. How can I find out about working for NPC?

Please take a look at our recruitment pages to find out what its like to work here, look at current opportunities and see about sending a speculative enquiry.

9. Should people give a certain amount to charity?

No, we’re not prescriptive about the money that donors give away. Our role is to provide advice to donors to help make their giving more effective and rewarding. We have found that, when donors discover the impact that their money can have, they are inspired to give even more. Have a look at these case studies of donors we have helped.

10. How can you judge charities by the same criteria as the financial sector?

Analysing charities is different to analysing businesses and it can be challenging. However, not all charities are perfect and some are more effective than others. So we think its important to try to gauge how effective they are. We believe that by changing the way donors think about giving money to charities and changing the way the charities themselves think about their effectiveness, we can help them to have a greater impact and improve the lives of millions of people. Our research methods and Charity Analysis Framework are public and we welcome feedback on the criteria we use.

11. What do you think about the state of giving in the UK?

From our experience, donors who’ve already planned their giving are not scaling back because of the recession. In fact, many philanthropists recognise that their role is more vital than ever right now, and they understand how important it is to maintain their giving. There have been some high profile cases of philanthropists scaling back their plans, but that’s not the norm.

Professional advisors tell us that wealthy individuals who may have intended to set up philanthropic foundations are delaying this decision, along with other decisions about their wealth management. We expect that things will pick up once there is more certainty about the economic outlook.

Find out more by seeing our giving trends page, for facts and figures on the state of the charity sector, donors and high net worth donors in the UK.

12. Do you have any other questions for us?

If so, please send your questions to us here. If you are a journalist, please visit our media page.